Porky Sunday...LBR's, Spares, Dutch's Beans & Fried Pork Skins: Q-view

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forluvofsmoke

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Aug 27, 2008
5,170
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It is an absalutely beautiful day for a Sunday afternoon smoke, and I have plenty of goodies to smoke up today. I'm sitting out on our covered deck with the computer and Blackberry for a internet modem while the kids re-arrange our family room in the house...computer desk, sofa, love-seat and everything is getting moved, so I asked my oldest boy to set me up outside...I'm up and running like nothing is different, except I have tons of fresh air, and get a wisp of smoke from the Vault sitting about 12 feet away in my kitchen...aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh, this is the life!

The weather is sunny, calm winds and lower 70"s, so I'm a happy smoker.

My wife was thinking about Bbq a couple days back when she grabbed me up 3 slabs of ribs to do a burn on (1 spare & 2 loin backs), and I have a few large cans of Bush's Beans to mix up and smoke as well...hmm, I just asked about the beans with the family this morning and it seems it's been far too long since we've had any, 'cause we can't remeber when, so that's a must. 9 lbs of smoked beans is on it's way to the rescue!

I'm doing a 1/3 slab of LBR's no-smoke style for the wife, as she's still having problems with smoked meats lately, so her's will get a foiled steam and then hit the open grates at the very end. The rest are getting the cherry/hickory treatment with a wet pan. The last smoked LBR's I did were no-foil/straight smoked. Today I'm doing a variation of the 3-2-1 method in a foil tented large baking pan.

I also have a brand new pair of Weber Rib Racks to test-fire, so I decided to try 'em out today. The spares won't stand up in the racks, as they are not high enough for an untrimmed slab, but St Louis cut would work out great, as do the LBR's (BB's should work great, too).

The membrane-side of the spares and the flap meat, rubbed with my Ancho Chili/Jalepeno Rub and resting a bit before I flip to rub the meat-side:

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The meat side of both, ready for a smoke:

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The LBR's, getting my Red Bell Pepper Rub:

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LBR's onto the Weber Rib Racks:

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Into the Smoke Vault 24 to get happy @ 11:00 am Mountain Time @ 225*:

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Rendering out 2 packages (24oz) of smoked bacon for one of my variations of Dutch's Beans:

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2.75 hours in, I took a peek for pull-back...the spares aren't doing much just yet:

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The LBR's are coming along nicely, though:

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I did a simple and easy version of beans, using Rotel diced Chilis & Tomatoes, crushed Pineapple and Bacon...30 minutes into the smoke while I looked at the ribs:

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I have 2 skins from picnic shoulders I smoked up a while back...just thawing them for the past 90 minutes or so, and I'll give them some slicing and frying soon. I have the bacon grease in a stainless copper-bottom pot to add some canola oil with and toss on my outdoor cooker. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm thinking a low temp fry so they don't burn before they get blistered and crisp.

These will make a great snack for today. I'm surely the cholesterol police will come running very soon, so I'll be ready...LOL!!!!!!

I'll toss some cajun seasoning on some, and maybe some wicked hot stuff on some others as they come out of the fry and drip dry on some papper towels.

The ribs have been smoking for 3.75 hours now, so, we're about half-way to the dinner bell...
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More to come!

Thanks for peekin'!

Eric
 
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Everything looks good Eric...Good to hear that all is well on this great Sunday afternoon.  I'm just taking it easy today and taking peeks at everyone's Sunday Smokes. Take care.
 
Eric! Dude! that looks killer! The beans made me drool. It was overcast here in south Ga. today so I mowed the grass. Here it is after 7 p.m. and I'm stuck with nothing promising for dinner, well, except a vodka and cranberry. Hmmm...Enjoy your dinner!
 
Thanks OPD, I'll be catching some R & R in the morning myself...er, is smoking or grilling meat considered R & R? Well, anyway, I guess it is to me, 'cause when I'm at home, that's what my spare time is spent on.
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Thanks Scarbelly and Squirrel...(like your avatar, btw)! I sure do have a good time doing a nice smoke like this...is there any better way to spend the day?

I went to work on my 1st picnic skin and it's is fried up...2nd is waiting for the results to see what can be done better. Ribs and beans are still smokin'.

The picnic shoulder skin getting some excess fat scraped off...fat side:

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Skin side:

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Into the pot of bacon grease and oil after slicing to get it all started...I wasn't using a thermometer at first, so can't tell you what the oil temp was...I stuck a deep fry thermo in the pot after 90 minutes and was pushing 400*. I was trying to keep it low & slow, but the skins aren't burning. 300-325* probably would be better. I did eventually end up switching to my Coleman stove to get a lower flame:

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90 minutes, and still frying...man, this takes awhile:

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The longer it fried the more liquids there were in the pot, so lots of fat is slowly rendering out. The outdoor cooker isn't too fond of keeping a low flame for this, but it's doing OK. I had a flame out once at about 45 minutes into the fry, so I just kept checking it every few minutes, but came to the realization that the high output burner wasn't going to get the job done.

Here's the skins after I tried a few and decided to break 'em apart for a salvage to go into the beans:

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Beans @ 2.5 hours in...just starting to skin-over:

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Ribs, @ 4.5 hours into the smoke...I dropped back on temps after 2 hours and am trying to run @ 210*...pull-back looks sweet on the LBR's:

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Pull-back is lagging on the spares, as always...foiling will push this along...the flap meat just looks like it's there on the grate...well, it did disappear shortly after taking this photo...hmm, wonder where it went?:

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The pork skins didn't work out for snacking...I'm calling them a flop for this round, other than needing a really serious removal of all fat, I can't tell what else could have gone wrong. They aren't getting the puffy/crispy texture I was hoping for. Still lots of unrendered fat in the larger pieces. The only salvage I have for now is to add them to the beans, which should add alot of texture and a different flavor profile...so, that's where they went.

Not the best first try I've had (the fried skins), but, I tried non-the-less. If anyone has had success doing them, let me know, as I still have another picnic skin left to try it on.

Finish coming soon...fried pork skins are in the beans and the ribs have been swapped from grate to foil, etc. I went 6 hours in the smoke with the ribs...??? Yea, I said 6...the drop in temps helped to stretch it out a bit... I started early. Dinner's at 7:00 and they've been foil tented since 5:00, so they should be right on time.

Eric
 
Trophy pics at last!!!!!!!!!!

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking now.

Red Bell Pepper rubbed LBR's all together again...lower left is the no-smoke 1/3 slab:

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The untrimmed Ancho Chili/Jalepeno rubbed spares, ready for the knife:

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All set to go:

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The beans...I got some mixed verdicts on the fried pork skins...about 2/3 of us liked 'em in the beans, so not too bad of a salvage of my 2+ hour prep and fry job:

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A whole mess of ribs & beans for a family of 7:

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The Red Bell Pepper rubbed loin-backs were good as always. My oldest son asked me what the rub was...when I told him, he asked if I changed it at all, because it tasted sweeter this time...oh, I know what it is...I used some cherry in the smoke this time around...man, even he noticed the subtle change. Yep, he's a Bbq lover!

The Ancho/Jalepeno rubbed spares had a pretty good kick to 'em...much better than the beef chucks I used it on last time for pulled beef...I'll have to work on getting some extra punch out of it on the larger beef cuts and then it'll be good for heating up a wider variety of meats...it'll be 2 seperate recipes, but that's OK.

Oh, my cooking times for the smoked ribs were 6-1.5-0.5, and the no-smoked were 0-6-2, and they all worked out pretty well with an average chamber temp of approx. 215*. I could have stood for a bit less grate and more foil time on the spares, as they had a bit more chew than I wanted, but still pretty darn good.

All things considered, I'd have to chalk it up as a very successful day in the thin blue smoke.

Dinner is served, so step up and grab a plate!!!!!! (I wish you all could...you know, I do like to share)

Thanks all!

Eric
 
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Wow my Friend !  The smoke rings on those ribs look fantastic and the ribs look  moist and inviting.  Great ending to a great day!!  Take care.
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